


around the christmas tree

by foreverhomes



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Boyfriends?, Christmas, Christmas Tree, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hugs, M/M, a bit angsty, but it gets fixed, dan is sad for a while, phan kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 07:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16868545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foreverhomes/pseuds/foreverhomes
Summary: “No, Phil, the silver one can’t touch the other silver one, stupid,”“Oh, I’m sorry that I’m decorating our tree in a way only you don’t like!”Or in which Dan and Phil decorate their Christmas tree and everything goes wrong, and then everything goes so, so right.





	around the christmas tree

“No, Phil, the silver one can’t touch the other silver one, stupid,”

“Oh, I’m sorry that I’m decorating _our_ tree in a way only you don’t like!”

Dan Howell sighed and went to grab a gold bauble, one that could actually go where Phil tried to put the silver one.

Dan and Phil were decorating their Christmas tree, and so far it was not going so well. Phil had already left one of Dan’s favourite ornaments at PJ’s house and they couldn’t get down to Brighton in time to pick it up. Then Phil strung the lights wrong so there was a huge gap in between two strands of light. The worst one, though, was the fact that Phil had picked up _neon yellow_  tinsel for their blue, gold and silver fucking tree. Dan had to go and pick up a silver and a gold, and now they had useless neon tinsel in their storage closet.

Needless to say, Dan was a little on edge.

“Dan? You want a hot cocoa refill?” Phil asked, picking up Dan’s red and black mug, a gift from a fan during their tour.

“Sure,” Dan really was trying to be patient, but it was hard when Phil was, well, Phil.

Dan was changing the music from Frank Sinatra to Mariah Carey when Phil handed him a fresh mug of hot chocolate, with small snowman shaped marshmallows on top.

“These are incredible,” Dan exclaimed, referring to the marshmallows, “Where did you get them?” He blew on his hot beverage and took a tentative sip. Phil had somehow mastered the hot chocolate recipe, with the perfect ratio of water to powder. (Hint: it was definitely not what the packets instructed.)

“Just the Tesco down the road. They’re not like, extreme fancy marshmallows or something.” Phil shrugged and continued working on the tree. He seemed to choose the ornaments and their places more carefully now; he had taken Dan’s complaints seriously.

Dan hummed in response, went to dig out their set of Mickey Mouse ornaments (which Dan knew were secretly Phil’s favourite) and, once he had uncovered them, set them aside.

“Dan?” Phil called out to him whilst hanging a blue icicle on a branch.

“Hm?” Dan looked up at him from his phone, where he was attempting to find the Backstreet Boys Christmas song, which had been proven difficult, when you didn’t know the words or the title of the song.

“Do you have a favourite ornament?” Phil made eye contact with Dan. He looked serious, which surprised Dan. He seemed to want a real answer, not a ‘the black and white Shrek one is my favourite’ answer.

He hesitated. Looked through the tree and scanned the box of ornaments. His favourite in terms of looks was the dog one, as it was both attractive and incredibly ugly at the same time. He thought it was funny. He opened his mouth to voice that opinion, but then an ornament they had yet to put up caught his eye.

It was a heart, glass, gold. It had silver detailing that curled around a small blue heart in the center. It was a stunning ornament, but that wasn’t why it was Dan’s favourite.

“The heart,” He pointed to it, and Phil gave a little side smile.

“That’s one of my favourites, too. It’s really beautiful.”

Dan shook his head and bit his bottom lip.

“No?”

“It’s not my favourite because it’s pretty, although it really is…” he went quiet and looked back up at Phil, who looked confused.

“Do you remember when we bought it?” Phil shook his head, looking guilty. Dan continued, “It was our first Christmas in the Manchester apartment. We had like, four ornaments, so we decided to pick up a bunch, even though it was a week until Christmas and all the good ones had sold out. We mostly only got baubles and stupid cheap ones, but while I was paying for them you found that heart. You practically sprinted over and put it on the counter and said ‘this, too’ and I didn’t argue even though it was fifty pounds.”

Phil seemed to be remembering the event now, as his eyes were brighter and his smile was wider.

“It always goes on last, right below the star.” He finished Dan’s story for him. They both smiled at each other, although a little awkwardly.

Phil took in a long breath and looked back at their table of ornaments. “There’s only a few left, do you wanna help or should I…”

Dan smiled and stood up, remaining silent. He grabbed a blue present that was covered in white glitter and hung it next to a particularly empty space in the tree.

They were quiet for a while, only communicating through points and shy smiles. Sometimes, that was all they needed.

Dan was on his last couple sips of cocoa, and that was when the mix that hadn’t fully dissolved settled. Maybe he was weird, but he didn’t want gritty hot chocolate. Phil was done as well, so he took their mugs back to the kitchen and filled them with hot water. As he did so, he changed the song again, putting on a random playlist on shuffle, which played an Elvis song.

“Dan, hurry up! There’s only a few ornaments left!” Phil shouted from the living room. Dan quickly returned, to see Phil holding Dan’s second favourite ornament, a small glass ball that acted like a snow globe, with a house and tiny gnome inside. It was a newer one, from their second to last Christmas in the first London apartment. It had been a gift from Phil’s family, something that had made Dan feel all warm and fuzzy inside

“It’s my turn to put up the heart this year, do you want to put this one up?” Phil beamed at him.

“Are you sure? I thought you did it last year,” That was a complete lie. He knew it was his turn; he just wanted to mess with Phil a little.

“No, I definitely didn’t...I think? No, I...wait. Did I?” He seemed a bit panicked. Dan couldn’t blame him, but it was kind of hilarious.

“No, you spork! Just give me the gnome,” Dan laughed as Phil sighed.

“For you, good sir, I present!” he said in a regal tone, causing Dan to laugh again, “The all-mighty...gnome globe!” A nickname they had given the decoration. Dan bowed slightly and reached out to take the globe from him.

Phil hadn’t timed it well, though, as when Phil let go, Dan didn’t have a good grasp on the string. Dan tried to grab it in time, but gravity happened too fast.

The ornament came crashing down at an extremely high velocity, and smashed on the ground in at least two dozen glass pieces. The small gnome, with the red hat, slid under the couch, at a distance neither of the two boys could possibly reach.

They both stared at the glass pieces in shock. Dan was hurt. Phil was embarrassed. Dan was angry. Phil was so incredibly guilty.

“Dan, I..I’m so sorry. I thought you had it, I should have asked if you had it. We can try to fix it? Maybe give the pieces to PJ for next year?” Phil attempted, while Dan stared at the mess of broken glass and thick liquid on the floor.

“Dan?”

He shook his head, apparently coming back to reality. “It won’t be the same if we just glue it back together; it’ll always have cracks and shit. It’s...it’s fine, Phil. It was just a little accident.” he forced. Dan was so confused. He didn’t know what to feel. He was definitely angry, but not at Phil. More so himself than Phil. He should have held on better than he did.

“I’m going to, um, I’m gonna go to my room for a bit,” Dan stopped the music and slid his phone into his jeans pocket. “You can finish without me.” Before Phil could do anything to stop him, Dan exited the living room and entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

It was stupid to cry, right? It was just an ornament. No big deal. Ornaments break all the time. Dan was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner, if he was being honest.

But Dan _wanted_  to cry. It  _wasn’t_  just an ornament. It was part of his and Phil’s life, therefore Dan didn’t want it to break.

He sighed and curled up on his bed. He probably wouldn’t come back out tonight. He would be fine tomorrow, he told himself.

Phil felt terrible. He knew that Dan loved that gnome and he also knew that it was handmade and cost a shit ton of money.

He tried to gather the pieces, and see if maybe, just maybe they could fit back together, but a lot of them were chipped in such tiny ways that it was pretty much impossible. He kept the pieces in a plastic bag, just in case, and wiped up the snow globe’s liquid feature that had spilled all over the floor.

“How can I make this okay?” Phil sighed, staring at Dan’s bedroom door.

It was late, most shops would be closed. Except for maybe…

Phil shot up from the ground and put on shoes and his puffy space coat.

“I’m gonna fix this, I swear.”

Dan heard the door slam shut and continued staring at his blank wall.

_Where are you going, Phil Lester?_

Phil didn’t have money or time (according to him, which wasn’t true) for a taxi or even an Uber, so he just ran to the shop. It was a good twenty minute walk, fifteen minute run.

The store closed at 7 pm (it was a family run shop and had early closing times) and Phil got there at 6:47.

“Hello, can I help you?” An elderly woman at the counter smiled at him.

“Yes, hi, yeah, uh, I need an ornament. Something like a snow globe? If you have that?” Phil panted, scanning the store for what he was looking for.

The woman looked around and then grinned. “I have just the thing. Come with me, son,”

She walked slowly over to the shelf of ornaments, and Phil followed like a lost puppy.

“This,” The woman picked up an ornament and showed it to Phil.

It was a snow globe, like Phil had requested. Silver and blue, which would match. The figure inside it was a street corner, with a lamppost and two people standing under it. Phil couldn’t tell what they looked like or what they were doing. The woman flipped it upside down, then put it back upright, and a flurry of plastic white snowflakes filled the globe.

“It’s a little old, but one of a kind. Handmade. I can give it to you for twenty pounds?”

Phil stared at it. It was beautiful. “I’ll take it,” He handed her a twenty pound bill and smiled. “Thank you. My boy- my roommate is gonna love it.”

“Bye, dear. Have a happy Christmas,” the woman walked back to the counter.

  
“You too.” Phil placed the ornament in his coat pocket, zipped it up, and headed back to Dan. Phil headed back home.

-

Dan hadn’t moved in the forty-five minutes Phil was out, and he kind of really had to pee. He wasn’t sure how to solve his problem.

He heard the door open and close, then heard Phil’s voice yelling.

“Dan! Come here, I’ve got something to show you!” he sounded excited.

Dan sighed and opened his door, then entered the front entrance of their apartment.

“What? I have to pee, make it quick,” Dan groaned, folding his arms across his Christmas sweater-clad chest.

“I know this won’t ever replace the gnome globe, and I am so fucking sorry that I broke it, but hopefully this can make up for it?” Phil pulled out the ornament and gave it to Dan, careful not to drop it this time.

Dan looked at it, and turned it over in his hand. He inhaled sharply and looked up at Phil again.

“I love it. Thank you, Phil.” Dan set down the ornament and slowly slid his arms around his best friend and soulmate.

Phil returned the gesture, and they stood there for a long time.

There was more silence and more hugging for a minute before Dan realized something.

“Uh, Phil?”

“Hm?”

“I still have to pee.”

Phil laughed and let him go. He proceeded to walk very quickly to the bathroom and came back to Phil waiting at the tree. He was holding the heart ornament in one hand and the new globe in the other.

“You ready to finish this tree?” Phil grinned at him and Dan smiled right back.

“Yes, please.” He took the globe (they talked themselves through it and didn’t drop it this time) and found the perfect spot on the tree, left to the center.

“How’s it look?” Dan looked at his friend, who smiled a great big smile.

“Just wait, Dan. We need to put the heart on!” he exclaimed proudly. Dan nodded and that was all Phil needed.

He checked that the designated space for the heart and saw that it was clear. He looked at Dan, who nodded again encouragingly.

Finally, after prolonging the event for far too long, he hung the delicate glass heart on their tree.

The two boys smiled at each other and came closer. Phil grabbed Dan’s arms and held him close to his chest, their noses about an inch apart.

“Happy Christmas, Dan,”

Dan brought Phil closer and stared into his eyes.

“Happy Christmas, Phil.”


End file.
